Art of the Possible: Rejection Is Your Protection

When a sales associate hears “No thanks” from customers one too many times, it’s time for a sales post mortem, a checkup from the neck up.

Breaking the cycle of consistent sales failures is not an easy task. A good way to reverse the course, though, is not to take “no” as a rejection but as a request for more information. Take “no” as permission to ask for the sale. Here are a few Gen One Ventures sales principals to turn rejection into sales success:

1. Conscript Thy Heroes: Hire only the finest proven sales performers, those who have superior business judgment, critical thinking skills, sales motivation, determination and passion to listen, learn and lead.

2. The 30-Second Sale: Every 30-second TV commercial is designed to sell you a brand, product or opportunity. Imagine as a sales person you are granted 30 minutes as opposed to 30 seconds. What are the steps to the perfect presentation to avoid rejection. The perfect presentation and measurement steps to ensure the sale are attention, interest, conviction, desire, close. When your sales people can gain a customer’s attention, interest, conviction, desire and close them in 30 seconds or 30 minutes you are on the way to market dominance.

3. Questions Are The Answers: Relevancy is a great competitive advantage. To gain relevancy, your salesperson must first hunt knowledge, understand competitive threats, study the prospect’s model and ask pertinent product questions. Armed with those advantages, your salesperson is now equipped to listen, exchange and orchestrate the conversation that will lead to a sale. Convince your sales associates to ask smart questions inside and outside of your building.

4. Threads of Steel: Successful selling is based upon knowledge, practice and superior selling threads. All sales presentations (whether in 30 seconds or 30 minutes) will achieve greatness by gathering and delivering key knowledge to prospects in these areas: market conditions, targeted buyers, competitive threats and opportunities, summary of market approach, brand and product competitive advantage, and closing the sale by actually asking for the order. When your sales people follow this informational selling thread perfectly, they will have earned the right to ask for the order.

Professional selling is not about tricks or treats, not about beating your prospect in negotiations, not about having delicious lunches, not about luck. Professional selling is first and foremost about respect. When merchants or prospects respect your product presentation, your market opinion, your competitive knowledge and your auger for success it means you are well on the way to gain your sale.

Rejection is your greatest brand and personal protection only if you respect it, only if you learn from it, only if you capitalize on it by muscling up and fueling the principals of professional selling.

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Peter Weedfald is the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Sharp Home Appliances, and the author of Green Reign Leadership, a book designed to articulate the art of the possible towards leading business dreams into market reality.